


Force of Habit

by Mikant



Category: Free!
Genre: F/M, Five Times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-17 18:31:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5881216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikant/pseuds/Mikant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Gou wore Sousuke's jacket.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Force of Habit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kunagiri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kunagiri/gifts).



> I know this starts out a little on the sadder side, but I promise it gets happier!  
> Hope you enjoy!

It was the first time she had seen the grave.

Sousuke had never been good with words, not that he had been alive for long enough at this point to have gotten much practice in. Even so, we wanted to say something, anything, to the little girl sobbing beside him.

Though Sousuke had only met Rin and Gou’s father a time or two, he had still wanted to visit him with them. It was what a friend should do.

Rin seemed to have cried himself out at the funeral, but Gou was hit hardest now, hugging her small arms around herself, tears streaming.

Sousuke opened his mouth like one of the fish that Toraichi Matsuoka would never catch again, though no sound came out.

All he could manage was wriggling out of his jacket, and bundling the tiny girl up in it, hoping that his small action could speak instead.

It was soft, and warm, and smelled like boys. Gou blew her nose in the sleeve.

* * *

 

“Thanks again for helping my mom with the garden,” Gou said, bringing a tray of cookies outside, and setting it down. There were always extra with now Rin away.

“It’s no problem. I know she’s busy these days,” Sousuke said, wiping his brow. “Here, would you take this for me?”

Sousuke slid off his jacket. It was early Spring, and still a little nippy on the more overcast days. Still, anyone would work up a sweat weeding and digging all afternoon.

Gou took the jacket, wrapping it around her own shoulders.

Sousuke hefted the shovel once again, as Gou watched his upper arms do their work. She licked her lips although she hadn’t eaten any of the cookies.

* * *

 

“Sousuke? Can you come over?” Gou asked once he picked up the phone.

“Is everything okay?” Sousuke asked. Ever since Rin had left, Sousuke and Gou mostly only saw each other at school; he rarely came by the house anymore.

“Yeah. Well…sort of? My mom’s out shopping, and I locked myself out of the house. I thought you might be closer than she is. Are you at home?”

“Sure. I’ll be right over.” Sousuke began to sift through his family’s key dish. The one for the Matsuoka household had settled at the bottom.

Back when Rin had still been around, Sousuke had been too young to be entrusted with the key to someone else's home. Now that he was a little older, and Mrs. Matsuoka had given him a key for emergencies the day he had helped with the garden, he thought that he had little reason to go over there anymore. While he enjoyed the times he had run into Gou at school, she had her own friends, people she’d much rather invite over for study sessions or weekend movies than himself.

“Where’s your coat?” Souskuke asked, eyebrows turned up sternly, upon arriving at Gou’s house only to find her shivering on the steps.

“I just ran out to get the mail. I must have locked it by accident…” she looked up at him pathetically, nose red from the January cold.

Without another word, he tossed his jacket to her as he unlocked the door.

Once he letting her back in, he turned to leave, though Gou still wore his jacket.

“Wait!” Gou called, grasping the boy’s wrist. “Do you want to stay until my mom gets home? I make a mean hot cocoa, and we have a whole thing of protein powder…”

* * *

 

Nitori... clumsy, yet well-meaning, Nitori. At the current moment, Sousuke found himself unsure whether to be annoyed at the younger boy, or thank him.

Gou was just the same as he remembered before they had started attending separate high schools. It was like nothing had changed, he thought, as the two walked around the Samezuka school fair together. Gou hadn’t grow much since last he’d seen her back in middle school. She was still petite, and fair, with hair as red as the escaped balloons that soared over head. As she spoke to him while they walked, catching him up on what Rin had been up to, how her own team was doing, he remembered how much he had enjoyed her company back then. After that one time she had locked herself out of the house, she had invited him over more and more often, seeing each other nearly every weekend until it came time for high school.

The two were now enjoying the school fair together, until Nitori interrupted, accidentally drenching Gou with his water gun.

Sousuke quickly discovered that he had been mistaken- Gou _had_ grown, he thought, averting his eyes as covered her wet shirt up with his school jacket.

Another balloon, sunny yellow, floated upward as she thanked him.

* * *

 

 Gou's eyes traveled from side to side, taking in everyone gathered, as her older brother walked her down the aisle.

Makoto and Haruka had even traveled all the way from their apartment in Tokyo to watch. Gou and Sousuke had decided to stay in Iwatobi for as long as they could- the place was just too full of memories to just up and leave it all behind.

Though Sousuke had suggested a Shinto ceremony, ultimately he had agreed with Gou on going Western-style.

Gou's white fish-tail skirt fluttered as she stepped up to the alter.

Once the ceremony had finished, and the two stepped outside, Sousuke draped his black jacket around her shoulders. It was mid-July, sunny, but somehow it felt like the right thing to do. Force of habit, he supposed.

 


End file.
